Energy-Generative Art: A New Way of Creating from the Bottom-Up
To understand the Energy-Generative Art, it is important to have a basic understanding of the development of generative art, Bitcoin, and NFT.
Generative Art
Generative Art refers to art created in whole or in part using an automated authoring system, a type of art usually applied to computer-based art. Art produced using a predetermined system, such as language rules. First born in the 1950s, it belongs to one of the subcategories of digital art.
Herbert Franke, a pioneer of generative art, conducted unique photographic experiments in his lab, where his work strayed into combinations of light, movement, and randomness. In 9 Analogue Graphics (1956/1957), Franke used a computer to generate images on an oscilloscope and then captured the images with a moving camera with an open aperture.
Early generative art also includes Disorder-themed works by artist Vera Molnár. She used the early programming languages Fortran and BASIC to create her work.
The creation of generative art has made it possible for people who do not seem to be connected to the art industry to create art, such as mathematicians or programmers.
Frieder Nake, a mathematician who designed computer algorithms, has created generative artworks inspired by the painting Hommage à Paul Klee (1965) by the German artist Paul Klee.
The previous three artists and non-artists can be seen using various forms of controlled randomness as part of the creative process that helped establish the foundation of the modern generative art movement.
Bitcoin’s Energy Method
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. It was published by Satoshi Nakamoto on October 31, 2008 and became operational on January 3, 2009. Anyone can participate in the production of bitcoin, which can be produced through proof-of-work operations by a computer.
The mining computers that produce Bitcoin have also evolved and become more specialized from their beginnings as personal laptops to CPUs and then GPUs to the currently specialized AISC machines. After more than a decade of development, Bitcoin has become the current legal tender in El Salvador. Meanwhile, El Salvador is planning to use local volcanic energy for bitcoin production.
The production of Bitcoin is a bottom-up decentralized state, developed by people of different backgrounds, cultures and ages around the world. This approach is made possible by Bitcoin’s clever combination of different technologies, especially the use of proof-of-work, and the creation of a completely new technology — the blockchain.
The blockchain technology brought by Bitcoin laid a very important foundation for the subsequent blockchain art, NFT and Energy-Generative Art.
NFT Art
After Bitcoin gained momentum, a circle of Bitcoin-led cryptocurrencies was formed. Innovators have gone on to create different types of cryptocurrencies based on the idea of Bitcoin. One of them, Ethereum, is based on the blockchain principle of Bitcoin, with the addition of smart contracts, which greatly facilitates the development and creation of digital art on the blockchain.
In 2017, a game design studio consisting of two programmers, called Larva Labs, launched a digital art experiment on the Ethereum blockchain. The project pays tribute to London’s early 70s punk scene and comes in the form of 10,000 unique, randomly generated, 24x24 pixel art images featuring humans, zombies, apes and aliens. The entire series stems from Larva Labs’ algorithm, which mixes features such as species, hairstyles and accessories to create random combinations of visual output.
CryptoPunk had a lukewarm reception at the beginning. It wasn’t until March 12, 2021, when an NFT by artist Beeple was auctioned at Christie’s for $69.34 million that NFT took the world by storm overnight, sweeping the art scene, jumping into the mainstream and even becoming a hot topic in society.
People began to recognize NFT as a new form of art. CryptoPunk, as the earliest representative of NFT art, made it possible for the first time in history for owners of digital artworks to confirm their rights and to trade them globally.
Energy-Generative Art
Starting in 2021, NFT works represented by CryptoPunk gained mainstream attention, thus driving the development of other NFT artworks and projects. And on May 16, 2019, a new form of generative art was quietly born on the Hacash blockchain called Hacash Diamond. unlike all NFTs, the generation of Hacash Diamond incorporates a proof-of-work mechanism similar to that of Bitcoin.
Like Bitcoin, the Hacash Diamond will be created by people of all backgrounds, cultures and ages around the world. The creation process, like the history of bitcoin production, will begin with a simple computer and continue with professional equipment. Meanwhile, the idea for Hacash Diamond was left behind by an anonymous person in the 2018 Hacash white paper, and like Satoshi Nakamoto, disappeared.
In addition to this, in the case of Hacash Diamond, like Bitcoin, there is a hard cap. Bitcoin is 21,000,000, and Hacash Diamond is 16,777,216 . But the difference is that Bitcoin is not NFT, it can be divisible, and by 2140 all the Bitcoins can be produced in over a century. The Hacash Diamond, on the other hand, is not divisible and would theoretically take until 2800, eight centuries, to complete. However, due to the design of its market supply and demand mechanism, the time to generate all the pieces of Hacash Diamond could be much longer.
Hacash Diamond Generative Process
To create a Hacash Diamond, you first need to have a machine, the address of the Hacash blockchain, and the Hacash blockchain’s settlement currency, HAC. the address is used to determine ownership, the machine is used to generate, and HAC is used to bid against people who are also generating.
Once the machine is successfully connected according to the generation guidelines, it will continuously perform calculations to start the creation, which will consume a certain amount of energy. The average time is 5 blocks, about 25 minutes to create a Hacash Diamond.
When you use one or more machines, you first obtain one or more six-letter words. The six letters represent a Hacash Diamond, a special identifier before the creation of a Hacash Diamond, such as the first Hacash Diamond with six letters “NHMYYM”.
When you get one or more 6 letters in a period of 5 blocks. You need to use the HAC to bid against the person who you jointly acquired the other 6 letters of the Hacash Diamond during this cycle. At the end of the block when it goes to 0 or 5, the highest bidder with 6 letters will get the right to create this Hacash Diamond piece, as if opening a blind box with 6 letters.
The final style of Hacash Diamond will be randomly generated from one of nine diamond shapes, each of which is cut into a different number of color blocks, which in turn are filled with 16 random colors.
Conclusion
Hacash Diamond, as a representative work of Energy-Generative Art, has created a new form of Generative Art. We see a bottom-up approach, decentralized, global, and diverse group of people, spanning centuries, working together to produce a work of art. This is something that has never happened before in history.
The process of creating art for Hacash Diamond is like humans digging for a natural gemstone; you never know exactly what it will look like until it is generated.
In addition to Hacash Diamond, Energy-Generative Art artworks include PoWNFT, created in March 2021 based on the Ethereum blockchain, which is a combination of atoms and music generated through energy, and Mineable Punks, created in September 2021 on Ethereum, which relies on energy to generate mPunk beyond the original 10,000 CryptoPunks.
These Energy-Generative artworks, which are given concrete forms, are also called Energy-Generative Substantiated Art by Hacash Diamond collector Vincent Peng. However, Energy-Generative Abstract Art has not yet been created by any artists and programmers.
Bitcoin created the blockchain, and Ethereum made the blockchain art creation process easier, making NFT mainstream. Energy-Generative Art is an art that naturally formed based on the previous two. It is predictable that Energy-Generative Art will probably be as significant in the field of NFT, generative art and art in general, as Bitcoin has been in the history of money.
References
[1] Punks, Squiggles, and the Future of Generative Media(2021, April 13). Derek Edws and Stephen McKeon. https://medium.com/collab-currency/punks-squiggles-and-the-future-of-generative-media-d2d3e9df623b
[2] 13 Reasons Why the Historic PoW NFT Hacash Diamond a Worthy Collectible(2022, April 21). nfthours staff. https://nfthours.com/13-reasons-why-the-historic-pow-nft-hacash-diamond-a-worthy-collectible/
[3] Why PoW NFTs are the Next Blue-Chip NFT Collections(2022, April 5). Ken You. https://hackernoon.com/pow-based-nfts-in-2021-a-comparison
